How Race Affects the Prevalence of Heart Disease in America

PROJECT: FINAL PROJECT: LITERATURE REVIEW, HYPOTHESIS, AND SIGNIFICANCE

RQ: Is there is a statistically significant association (e.g., unlikely to have occurred by chance alone) between race and coronary heart disease?

Dependent Variable: Coronary Heart Disease

Independent Variable: Race

Null Hypothesis: There is no statistically significant association between race and ethnicity and coronary heart disease.

Alternate Hypothesis: There is a statistically significant association between race and ethnicity and coronary heart disease.

Statistical Test: TBD based on population sample.

Summary of other studies that directly relate to identified disease

A study by Abu Bakar et al. (2022) found that individuals with dietary patterns that include high levels of sodium, high saturated fatty acid and processed foods experienced are at elevated risk of developing coronary heart disease (CHD). These findings underscore the racial disparities in consumption of diets high in sodium, saturated fat, and heavily processed foods, which exacerbates risks for CHD.

Consequently, minority groups such as African Americans and Hispanic/Latinx individuals are more likely than whites follow diets exceeding recommendations for sodium, saturated fats, and processed meats. Moreover, differences in eating pattern have been shown to persist even after accounting for socioeconomic status, suggesting cultural dietary customs and accessibility of quality nutrition in minority communities represent driving factors (Moise et al., 2016).

More to the point, an ambitious longitudinal study spanning the years from 1987 to 2017 by Islek et al. (2022) found that African-America patients suffer from higher rates of fatal coronary heart disease incidents compared to their white counterparts. These researchers posited that racial disparities in CHF-related deaths occurring outside of hospital settings may account for the elevated risk of mortality from this condition among Black populations (Islek et al., 2022).

Finally, the results of a study by Gaglioti et al. (2022) concerning racial differences that exacerbate the risk of CHF events are especially noteworthy. These researchers found that there is a direct correlation between waist circumference and the risk of CHF among African-American women, but interestingly not among African-American men. Because obesity is significantly higher among both African-American men and women, though, these findings underscore the risk of CHF for these groups (Gaglioti et al., 2022).

Description of the significance of why this issue is important for examination